Elijah Prosser

My third cousin once removed, Allen Prosser of California, has been researching the Prosser family extensively for decades.The earliest record he has found to date for the Prossers in our family line is that of John Prosser, born about 1767. John and his wife Anna Haynes had 12 children, the fourth one being John, born in 1796 in Florida, Montgomery County, New York. John relocated to the Home District in Ontario and married Sarah (Sally) Willoughby. They had ten children.

My line is descended from John and Sarah’s fifth child, Elija Prosser, born September 7,  1830, in North Gwillimbury Township in what was then the Home District and would become York County.

Elijah married Cinderella Morton on February 21, 1856. Elijah and Cinderella had eleven children: William “Walker”, John “Wayman”, Sarah Jane, Charles Franklin “Frank”, Arthur Leslie, Mary Matilda, Unnamed Infant (an infant who died shortly after birth), Nancy Alberta, Etha (who died at about 2½ months), Etta May and Ada.

Frank was my great grandfather.

In addition to being a farmer, Elijah worked for the Department of Inland Revenue later in his life. I located Elijah Prosser on a list entitled “Canadian Civil Servants Lists 1872-1900 (1898)”. He was listed as a Preventive Officer for the Department of Inland Revenue - Outside Services. His salary was $400 and his date of appointment was December 24, 1897. I contacted Library and Archives Canada in order to learn what a Preventive Officer did at this time. It turns out Elijah was responsible for locating illicit stills in the area! This must have been a pretty pervasive problem if he could earn $400 a year in 1898!

According to the 1878 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of York, Elijah owned four separate properties in what is now the downtown area of Keswick, Ontario. He owned 100 acres at Lot 16 Con II as well as three other lots of varying sizes - Lots 14, 15 and 16 in Con III. His family homestead was built next to what is the present public school near downtown Keswick, Elijah having donated the land on which the school was built, according to family lore. Elijah’s house is no longer standing. Elijah also owned three properties in Belhaven – parts of Lots 14, 15, 16 in Con V. 

In Probate Records for Elijah, dated April 16, 1910, the list of real estate included the following:

8 acres on Part Lot 14 Con 8 valued at $1,500

75 acres Part Lots 14 & 15 Con 4 valued at $3,200

80 acres of Lot 15 Con 3 valued at $4,500

There was a mortgage payable on these three properties in the amount of $5,200 to the John Holborn Estate, so the total net value of the properties was $4,000. Taking into account inflation, and using an online Canadian inflation calendar that uses 1914 as a base year, that $4,000 would be equivalent to $97,867 today. Of course, this property would be worth far more than this in today’s real estate market!

Elijah’s Last Will and Testament was included in the Probate file and I include it here as I have transcribed it. Some punctuation has been added by me for readability. The will appears on a standard will form and has been dictated by Elijah as the writing on the form does not match the signature of Elijah.

This is the Last Will and Testament of me Elijah Prosser of the Township of North Gwillimbury in the County of York and the Province of Ontario made this first day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nine.

I Revoke all former Wills and other Testamentary Dispositions by me at any time heretofore made and declare this only to be and contain my last Will and Testament.

I Direct all my just debts, funeral and Testamentary expenses to be paid and satisfied by my Executors hereinafter named, as soon as conveniently may be after my decease.

I give, devise and bequeath all my Real and Personal Estate of which I may die possessed in the manner following, that is to say: To my Wife Cinderella Prosser the whole of my Real and Personal Property during her natural life, and after her death to be disposed of as follows: that is to say to my son Wayman Prosser, my daughter Sarah Jane Morton, Charles Franklin Prosser, Mary Matilda Nobles (sic), Nancy Alberta Glennie (sic), Etta Terry to receive share and share alike subject to the following conditions. Namely Adda (sic) Prosser, my daughter, is to receive out of my Estate during her life one hundred and fifty dollars per year; the share which is received by Wayman Prosser at his death to be divided among his three children namely Allen (sic) Prosser, Glen (sic) Prosser and Myrtle Prosser, also the share which goes to Charles Franklin Prosser to be at his death divided among his children to share and share alike. To my son Aurthur (sic) Leslie Prosse (sic), after the death of my Wife Cinderella Prosser, I will and bequeath to him the house and lot on which I now reside being a part of Lot number fourteen in the third Concession of North Gwillimbury containing by admeasurement three or four acres be the same more or less. At the death of said Aurthur (sic) Leslie Prosser and his Wife Mary Prosse (sic) in the event that there is no heirs the house and the lot herein described reverts back to the Estate to be divided among my heirs then living. My Executors hereafter named are instructed to sell and dispose of the seventy five acres being parts of lots Number fourteen and fifteen in the fourth Concession of North Gwillimbury also to sell building lots as opertunty (sic) may come on either side of the road of lot number fourteen in the third Concession. That part of Lot number fifteen in the third concession is not to be sold but to be kept rented for the purpose of paying for the care and keep of Adda (sic) Prosser my daughter during her life.

I hereby request and instruct my Executors to see that my daughter Adda (sic) is well took care of and provided for. Now should any of the claimants under this Will make any trouble or disturbance they forfeit any claim they might otherwise have under the Will.

And I nominate and appoint Cinderella Prosser, William Mahoney and Alfred Morton all of the Township of North Gwillimbury and Abraham Nobles (sic) Township of Mariposa to be executors of this my last Will and Testament.

On August 26, 1909, a codicil to this will was written to remove William Mahoney as an executor. The remaining executors were Elijah’s wife, Cinderella, her first cousin Alfred Morton, and Elijah’s son-in-law, Abraham Noble, who was married to Elijah's daughter Mary Matilda.

Elijah’s youngest child, Ada, was provided for in her father’s will as she was born mentally challenged. Ada was recorded living with her mother and her brother Wayman on the 1921 Census. She was sent to live at the Orillia Hospital School in March of 1924, a year before Cinderella died at age 90. The school was formerly known as the Orillia Asylum for Idiots and later known as the Huronia Regional Centre. Twenty-five years later, Ada died there in her 66^th year. I truly hope Ada did not suffer there.

The one person who is missing from Elijah’s will is his eldest son William “Walker”. As the three lots in Belhaven, Lots 14,15,16 in Concession V, were not mentioned in the inventory in the probate papers nor mentioned in the will, it is reasonable to assume that Elijah had either given or sold these lots to his son Walker at some point after they appeared under his name in the 1878 Historical Atlas.

Walker built the house that now stands on Lot 16 in Concession V. According to the late Betty Prosser, the first house was a one-storey "cottage", and the second storey was added later, followed by the two-storey addition at the back. The property was named Grandview Farm.

Walker’s descendants have a farm lease showing that in 1911 Walker leased Lots 14 and 15 in Concession IV from Alfred Morton, who was his mother’s cousin and also an executor of his father’s estate. It appears that Alfred bought Lots 14 and 15 in Concession IV from the estate and then leased the property back to Walker.

Walker married Margaret “Hester” Soules February 28, 1881, and they had two sons and a daughter, Alice Alma, who died young. The homestead was left to Walker’s second son, Cecil Daniel Prosser. Walker’s elder son Warren Soules Prosser had moved to Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1903 to work with his uncle David Soules in business. 

L-R Back - Cecil Prosser, Warren Prosser, Florence (Cole) Prosser, Abraham Noble

L-R Front - Cinderella (Morton) Prosser, Walker Prosser, Mary Matilda (Prosser) Noble

Photo courtesy of the Georgina Pioneer Village and Archives

c 1920-1921

Cecil married Sadie Elizabeth Nelson January 14, 1915 and they had two daughters, Alice Alma and Margaret Ida, and a son Roydon Alvin Prosser. Cecil left the Grandview Farm homestead to his son.

Roydon married Elizabeth “Betty” McQueen December 8, 1951. They had two sons and a daughter. Betty was an avid family historian and took pride in knowing her family history and sharing it with others. She helped to transcribe the Mann Cemetery headstones for the York Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and shared some of her family photos with the Georgina Pioneer Village and Archives.

Betty shared many photos with me when I visited her in 2009. I am grateful to her and her custodianship of treasured family photos which I would never have seen otherwise.

Grandview Farm, along with a few surrounding acres, is now in the hands of the family of Roydon's elder son, the late Scott Linton Prosser. Several generations of Prossers have lived together in this house. The farmhouse has been a duplex for many years, with the larger part of the house being at the front. Which generation of the family has lived in which part of the house has depended on the space needed for the family at the time. This has been a fine example of the aging in place concept.

In the dining room at Grandview Farm now stands the lovingly refurbished upright grand Heintzman piano that was originally owned by Walker’s wife, Hester. She gave piano lessons in her parlour. Now the piano is enjoyed by her great great great grandchildren. No doubt she would be pleased to know this!

Elijah died December 27, 1909 and is buried in Queensville Cemetery, just inside and to the right of the front gate. It is a fitting tribute to a man who left such a legacy for his descendants.